My Best Friend is a Goddess
Tara Eglington
October 2016
Young Adult Fiction
HarperCollins Publishers

My Best Friend is a Goddess is the latest young adult novel by Australian author Tara Eglington, and I loved it. It’s a rather long novel for the young adult genre, but I devoured it over two days. The characters are realistic, three-dimensional and relatable. They also have flaws and insecurities, much like a lot of high school students in real life.

Emily and Adriana have been best friends since Year One, even when Adriana and her father moved away to Borneo for 18 months during Year Eight. When Adriana comes back home, she’s gorgeous – tall, skinny, pretty. Like a Victoria’s Secret model. And Adriana hasn’t just changed on the outside. She’s bold and confident, and she’s learnt to stick up for herself.

And although this is good in theory, Adriana begins to change from who she used to be. She’s quick to judge, and she’s brazen at times. Emily starts to see a different person, and since Emily has her own insecurities, the reader can understand why she suddenly feels unimportant and left out of Adriana’s new approach to life.

People stop Adriana in the street to tell her she should model. Boys throw themselves at her everywhere she goes. The popular girls at school, who made Adriana’s life hell once upon a time, are now following her on Instagram and sending her pics on snapchat. Adriana has suddenly joined the popular group at school, and Emily feels like she has no place.

Tara’s latest young adult novel is about what happens to a friendship when two girls change – and not just on the outside.

“I look in the mirror, ninety per cent because I want to end this embarrassing conversation and go get that hot chocolate, and ten per cent because of curiosity about Em’s total freak-out. I have to admit, it’s nice to not have the gappy teeth anymore, or the braces. I also love that my face is no longer half-obscured by big glasses. I hated seeing the world through black rims. My hair is longer and streaked from the sun. Besides that though, I don’t get what she’s freaking out at.”

In addition to all these strains on their rekindled friendship, there is a gorgeous new student at the school who both Emily and Adriana are crushing on. And this becomes the catalyst for a divide in the friendship – the cracks that were starting to appear in their once strong formation are well and truly deepening.
My Best Friend is a Goddess is told from both Emily and Adriana’s point of view – the chapters alternate between the girls and the reader gets to understand each of the characters and get to the know them. We begin to sympathise and understand both of them, even when they start to move away from each other and lose touch.

My Best Friend is a Goddess explores high school friendship, and no doubt female readers can relate to a number of the plot points in the novel. High school can be particularly hard to navigate, and that doesn’t take into account how difficult it can be to keep friendships stable. Girls often feel the need to be popular and be liked in school, and to join that very confident ‘popular’ group with their expensive clothes and their party invitations. The presence of boys at high school can result in competitiveness between girls, and that’s exactly what happens in this book.

There were a few things I disliked about the book. Some of the dialogue felt a little forced, and Theo didn’t always feel like a teenage boy. High school males can often be quite reserved and awkward around girls, and even though there are some boys who are a lot more confident, Theo felt a little too mature to be a high school student. He was gentlemanly and compassionate and caring, and he read like he was a lot older than he was supposed to be. Theo’s relations with Emily and Adriana were sweet, but not representative of real teenage relationships. I also felt that the ending was a little rushed. The plot was really well-developed and it moved at a good pace, but then it got to the climactic point in the story and Tara resolved the issues with a few journal entries that skipped over lengths of time – important lengths of time that I would’ve liked explored a little more.

Despite that, I really enjoyed reading this book and if you’re a fan of young adult fiction, I’d highly recommend it. It challenges a lot of stereotypes that you see in this genre, and Tara has diverted away from the cliché ending that I was worried was coming. This book is so relatable for high school students that I can’t recommend it highly enough for teenage girls to read. This book will make you realise that you aren’t alone, even if you feel like you are. This book will make you realise that even if that popular guy doesn’t like you, that doesn’t mean no guy will. And this book teaches readers to work hard and value their friends because life-long friendships are really difficult to find and even harder to maintain.

What a refreshingly unique, insightful and beautiful book. I really enjoyed reading this novel and thought Randa Abdel-Fatha did such a fantastic job of making these characters so realistic and so rich with emotion.

When Michael Met Mina is a young adult novel that explores race, religion, family, class, multiculturalism and identity. It delves into the refugee policy in Australia, which feels very timely and relevant. The treatment of refugees and asylum seekers is a constant point of conversation at the moment, and When Michael Met Mina does a marvellous job of grounding that discussion and allowing the reader to really consider all opinions.

Mina is a young refugee whose family came to Australia by boat as refugees from Afghanistan. They settled into the Western Sydney suburb of Auburn and then suddenly moved to the affluent North Shore when Mina received a scholarship to an elite private school. And there, the family are subjected into a world where casual racism is the norm.

Michael’s parents founded a new political party called ‘Aussie Values’ – aimed at stopping the boats – and without realising it, Michael has absorbed their anti-immigration stance. He has grown up following in his parents’ footsteps and adopting their beliefs. And then Michael meets Mina on the opposing side of a refugee rally. And his attraction builds.

“Before Mina, my life was like a completed jigsaw puzzle but Mina has pushed the puzzle onto the floor. I have to start all over again, figuring out where the pieces go.”

As Michael starts to fall for Mina, he starts to question his parents’ beliefs. He starts to disagree with his friends when they make fun of Mina and the reader witnesses him evolving and maturing and growing aware of what it means to be a refugee in Australia.

The characters in this book are complex but beautiful. Their obstacles are realistic of Australians today and the naivety of some of the characters can be seen in many young people today. Mina’s experiences are not unique – many refugees in Australia have experienced what she has. And she’s a sweet, compassionate character who isn’t afraid to stand up for herself. She isn’t afraid to be confident about her place in Australia.

“There’s a lot of ugliness under this sky. But there’s plenty of beauty here too. I want to find it, spread it around, all over the cruelty and injustice. I want to shake this world like a can of lemonade, pop the lid and watch the bubbles explode”

Randa is a wonderful writer. Her prose is evocative and descriptive and the dialogue reflects teenagers today. The social dynamic between the characters is brilliant and the progression of the story keeps the reader engaged and interested in how the story will end.

I really loved this book and can’t recommend it enough. You don’t need to love young adult fiction to love this novel. It’s an enlightening, relatable and highly relevant novel to read at this time in Australian history.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is an American novel and follows the adventures of Frankie Landau-Banks, a fifteen-year-old sophomore at the prestigious Alabaster Academy in Massachusetts. She catches the attention of Matthew Livingston, a senior boy whom she begins dating. And then she discovers that Matthew is a member of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, a secret male-only society on campus responsible for lighthearted pranks and mischief. And Frankie, who is mischievous and clever in her own way, comes to envy the bond that Matthew and his fellow Hounds share.

Frankie Landau-Banks struggles to prove herself to her parents and her sister. She is underestimated, nicknamed ‘Bunny Rabbit’, and Matthew is distant and secretive with her just because she’s a girl and therefore can’t join his secret society. Frankie becomes frustrated and angry, and she starts to rebel against the patriarchal rules of the secret society and Frankie decides to take matters into her own hands.

She deviously pretends to be the Alpha of the group and plans new pranks, each of them reflecting the need for change and reform within Alabaster. But this can also be said for wider society, reflecting how many sports or societies exclude women or people ‘not worthy’ of joining. Frankie is fighting against the stereotypical role of a female character, and she takes an active role in fighting the exclusive male society that Matthew is in.

Matthew had called her harmless. Harmless. And being with him made Frankie feel squashed into a box—a box where she was expected to be sweet and sensitive (but not oversensitive); a box for young and pretty girls who were not as bright or powerful as their boyfriends. A box for people who were not forces to be reckoned with.

Frankie wanted to be a force

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is a refreshing, witty and enjoyable book about a boarding school experience that is most unlike other novels. E. Lockhart has a way of drawing the reader in and holding us until we’ve read her novel in one sitting.

And Frankie? Well, what a fantastically feisty main character! Frankie is not just sassy, cunning, bold, confident and reassured. She’s daring, intelligent and she’s level-headed and she calculated. She really is a fantastic protagonist, and she feels like a protagonist that I’ve never come across in young adult fiction before. She’s not one of those girls who changes when they get a boyfriend, nor is she the kind of girl who is clumsy, gutless and naive around men.

Frankie looked into his face. He genuinely liked her, she knew. Maybe even loved her. He just loved her in a limited way.
Loved her best when she needed help.
Loved her best when he could set the boundaries and make the rules.
Loved her best when she was a smaller, younger person than he was, with no social power. When he could adore her for her youth and charm and protect her from the larger concerns of life.

This book highlights a gender imbalance, and seems to be a subtle metaphor for a lot of real life. Frankie challenges the notion that boys seem to be rewarded when they pull off clever schemes but girls are seen as being deranged and manipulative:

Why is it psychotic if I did it, and brilliant if Alpha did it?

E. Lockhart’s prose is fluid and the characters are three dimensional and realistic. They reflect those of us here outside of the fictional world of Alabaster, being stereotyped and cornered because of our gender.

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Who’s Afraid is a wonderful, exciting new novel for young adult readers and fans of paranormal fiction.

Tommi is a young Scottish woman living an ordinary life, still grieving over the death of her mother. After travelling to New Zealand to track down her estranged, biological father, Tommi stumbles upon her extended family and they aren’t what they seem. They’re dangerous and they kidnap and torture her. Tommi escapes and runs back home to Scotland. But it’s too late – they know who she is now and she is quickly thrust into her birthright as the world’s most powerful werewolf. And the sudden appearance of a dark, mysterious (and very attractive) guardian further confuses her as her powers begin to develop and she begins to understand that her life can never be the same again.

Who’s Afraid is the start of a new series, and Tommi is a wonderful protagonist. She is confident, bold, passionate and motivated, but she is also brash and brazen and mature and intelligent. She is quick to judge her surroundings to escape trouble and she knows how to follow her gut instinct.

Maria Lewis does a marvellous job of easing the reader into this new paranormal world – there’s a lot of travel involved in the book so the reader does feel like there’s a mix between the ‘normal’ and ‘everyday’ world that is Tommi’s home in Scotland, and the paranormal side of her life that we are introduced to in New Zealand. As Tommi accepts who and what she is and begins training and learning about this new world, the reader is propelled into the middle of a centuries-old battle and a world peopled with expert warriors and vicious enemies.

The dialogue in this novel is smart, quick and realistic. The characters are engaging, entertaining and they hold the book together well. There are surprises and shock plot points in the novel that the reader won’t see coming – things happen that don’t usually happen in a young adult novel, and it’s refreshing and great to read. Maria leaves plenty of things open for book two in the series, which I hope will be on shelves soon.

I recommend this book to young adult readers, but also to readers looking for something a little different. I hadn’t yet found a book about werewolves that I enjoyed, but I really loved reading Who’s Afraid and I’m very much looking forward to the second book in the series.

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With Malice is a young adult novel about eighteen-year-old Jill Charron, who wakes up in a hospital bed after a car crash. She’d been in Italy with her best friend Simone and their car went off the edge of a cliff and Simone died.But Jill has amnesia and doesn’t even remember being in Italy. She certainly doesn’t remember the accident, and now she requires a press team and a lawyer because it looks like the accident wasn’t actually an accident, and Simone’s family think Jill deliberately drove that car off the cliff.

This book is the perfect novel for a summer holiday read, or when you feel like reading something easy. I read it in one sitting and I was very absorbed in the book. The classic ‘did she do it?’ storyline was enough to keep me entertained. The story moves at a fast pace and slowly, through interview transcripts and the occasional flashback, you find out about Jill’s time in Italy over the summer.

The reader starts to receive conflicting bits of information. Simone’s parents give different information to their classmates, and the tour guide reveals things about Jill and Simone that Jill can’t believe they did. The reader starts to question what is the truth and what is a lie.

The story of Jill’s car crash makes the news and Jill becomes the centre of a murder investigation. The media is portraying her as a sociopath who killed Simone in a jealous rage. Evidence starts mounting, but Jill still can’t remember the summer and she doesn’t believe the things that people are saying about her. Jill works to piece together the previous two months and work out who is responsible for Simone’s death.

Eileen Cook has crafted a story where the reader begins to suspect everyone of something. Jill’s hospital roommate could be suspicious – so could her father. Or perhaps it’s the man who Jill and Simon both fell for on their Italian summer holiday? Also, With Malice is not just written in prose. Eileen has filled the book with interview transcripts, holiday guides, flashbacks, and news headlines and news articles. This forces the reader to concentrate on the information being given to them, because there are subtle clues being delivered in those chapters.

This is a great thriller novel for younger readers. It’s a short novel and the chapters are broken up with different styles of writing, so it’s easy to read for those not yet confident enough for adult thriller novels. There are a lot of surprises in With Malice to keep the reader guessing and to keep them interested in finding out what happened. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it.